Mini Shaker Suncatchers

Hello Clear Scraps friends!  Has the sun started to come out where you live?  I hope many of you are beginning a warm-up this season.  It's Maureen with you today, and where I live - I see the sun a lot.  I wanted to try a craft that was a little out of my norm, so I decided to work on a few sun catchers and wanted to share the results with you!

I've been playing around with the alcohol inks this year quite a bit, and I love watching what they do on various surfaces.  One of the most recent tests is using inks on acrylic, and since the Clear Scraps Mini Shakers have acrylic plates, I thought - why not try to make a few home decor items to hang in my window?

I've chosen the new Bumble Bee Mini Shaker, the Bee Hive Mini Shaker and the Flower Mini Shaker for my project.  I thought these would go together nicely hanging in my window, don't you think?  

The first step was to pull out the acrylic panels from each one and remove the front and back protective plastic film.  Next, I've chosen an assortment of colors, making each one a bit different.  

For the flower, I'm doing a lime green, pink and a splash of red.  For the bee, I picked yellow and orange.  And, for the bee hive, I experimented with a couple blues and a yellow - knowing I would probably get a splash of green out of the mix!

I've learned to make sure and wear gloves, as well as have some protective plastic and paper underneath my projects.  To make the patterns, simply drop one drop at a time onto the panels.  Some run really fast - so if you don't like that, make sure you have a piece of paper towel nearby to dab up the extra ink.  

Let each color layer dry thoroughly before applying another color.  I also like to start with light colors first otherwise dark spreads too fast across the sheet.  Some sheets I tipped to let the ink run, and others I let sit - or you can also use a hair dryer to blow it around!

The great part about alcohol inks is that if you don't like the look on acrylic, you can use an alcohol blending solution and it "erases" what just happened!  I did that a few times until I got my color mixes right.

While my panels dried, I painted a front and back chipboard piece for each shaker in assorted acrylic paints.  Since this project will spin around, it's important to paint both sides.  Also - a friendly reminder:  for pieces like the bee hive, make sure you are pairing them up as a mirror image.  That will allow you to glue them back-to-back.

Now, I am just using tacky glue to secure them to the stained acrylic panels; but, before you glue one panel down, slip a piece of fishing wire underneath the border.  This will be your hanger when it dries!

Okay - so my sun catchers have dried, and now I've chosen some really pretty beads that will look good in the light.  I'm slipping these down the fishing wire hangers in various patterns, and then tying the top securely in a knot.  I've also embellished my shakers with some ribbon and flowers too.

The shapes are ready to hang!  You can use a suction cup hanger on your window, or in your favorite tree outside!  If you do use them outside, I recommend sealing them with a couple coats of waterproof sealer first.

I absolutely love the cheery look to these!  What mini shakers would you choose if you tried this project?  I hope you enjoyed this craft today - stay warm, everyone!

Maureen

Additional supplies:  Ranger alcohol inks and blending solution, gloves, protective plastic or paper, paper towels, acrylic paints, fishing wire, assorted beads